NASCAR CUP SERIES: BANK OF AMERICA 400

October 11, 2026

Chase Briscoe

Press Conference

An Interview with:

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THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by today's race winner of the Bank of America 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Chase Briscoe. You get the victory with a margin, unofficial margin of 0.029 seconds which is the second closest in the history of Charlotte Motor Speedway. That last lap doesn't tell the full picture of that quest to win today. Just talk about how you managed that last run that was probably the longest of the race and were able to sneak by with the win today.

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, definitely was a close race. Just there at the end, that was definitely going to be the longest run of the race if it ran green all the way to the end. I felt like the run before that I was pretty strong compared to Christopher, but we just didn't know what he was going to do the last 15 laps of that run.

I felt really good about my car. I was able to keep putting a gap on Christopher and even in lap traffic I felt good. Yeah, with like six to go I caught I think it was the 41 car, and all of a sudden I noticed my car quit turning all at once, and then after a lap or two I realized that my right front was about to go down.

We've been cording tires, at least the right front, the last couple runs, and, yeah, I just caught that pack of lap cars and with the right front starting to cord I got really, really tight. Yeah, truthfully another lap it maybe blows the right front with how much it was coming apart and just couldn't do anything. I was just kind of hanging on.

Yeah, second closest finish. Probably the biggest gap ever blown of a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but glad we were able to hold on.

Q. After you win a race like this, the last two, three weeks in a row, is there a part of you that starts to go, hey, why not us in this championship if we take 20 here, 20 there and go on a run like Tony did? Do you go, why not us?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, even when we were 123 out you're still going to the racetrack just to win and the points are going to be what they are.

Ultimately in our situation you're just going to the racetrack and trying to win the race. Because the 5 car can maintain what he's able to do and average a top 3 or top 5 running position. The only way you're going to ever cut into that gap of now 65 points is you have to win races and get that big chunk of points on him.

Look, I think we were certainly in contention. We probably need to win another race or two, but we at least put ourselves in the ballgame. That's all you can ask for. I can count literally in four laps 75 points I've given up in the last five weeks, and to be able to be 65 points out is still a great thing.

But definitely a little bit of what could have been. We never know how it's going to look in four weeks from now but just have to go to the racetrack and keep winning races ultimately, and if we can do that, the points are going to be what they're going to be at the end.

Q. You had a strong second half last year, but certainly this is the best you and this team has looked over a continued period, and this is the first time you've been in a run to where it's like, you are the top guy in the sport in this period of time. What is that like for you given your trajectory up the ranks in racing to kind of walk in here and go I'm one of the guys to beat every week.

CHASE BRISCOE: It's definitely crazy. I didn't think I would run a single Cup race, right? I don't know. I think a lot while I'm out there, and I found myself with like 15 laps to go going, you could win back-to-back Cup races. That's a hard thing to do.

To be a guy that is a contender week in and week out, that is what you strive to be as a race car driver. You just want to be one of those guys that when you're on the racetrack, people know that you could go win a race.

Truthfully, I never thought I would be in this position, especially just my Cup career, like starting at SHR and just the -- I don't know, just the state that we were in.

Like going to the racetrack and winning races wasn't -- that's what we tried to do, but we weren't able to do it consistently.

Now to be at JGR where you go to the racetrack every single weekend and you know you're going to have a chance to win, it's a special thing to be a part of. It does remind me a lot of kind of coming through the ranks, like the ARCA stuff, even that year in Xfinity where you just go to the racetrack knowing you have a chance to win.

But to be able to say that at the Cup level is just so hard to do, and it's definitely just a privilege to honestly be in this position to get to drive these race cars every week.

Q. The finish today reminded me of -- I wasn't able to pull up the year or location, but I remember you and Christopher had a photo finish in the Truck Series once when we were at BKR, he was KBM. I think it was a caution light call --

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, it was, at Texas 2017.

Q. You've been having these races for at least nine years. I know you've been racing each other a long time. First of all, what was your perspective in the drag race to the line? And how cool is it, I guess, to be having these moments with him fighting for Truck wins now all the way to fighting for a Cup championship against Christopher?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, it's definitely unique. I think I met Christopher when I was probably 12 or 13 years old racing online. We just instantly became really good buddies. We would honestly race online until 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning every single day.

There was a group of probably 10 to 15 of us that would literally religiously race on rFactor. I think a lot of my racecraft is from that. It was myself and Christopher Bell and Logan Seavey, these guys that would race sprint cars and are kind of the competitors now, and we just would race all the time.

Christopher for me was always truthfully the bar. When I was coming up through the ranks I was obviously sleeping on couches and trying to volunteer just to get an opportunity, but Christopher always was on the development deal and he was the guy for Toyota.

I'd always just try to compare myself to Christopher. If I could get into an ARCA race with him or whatever, I just always based myself off of him because I knew that I had grown up with him and kind of knew his background was the exact same as mine.

Truthfully when I started my Cup career, Christopher was able to win races, and I always felt like if I could get the opportunity, I could do the same thing. But you never really know, right? Now to be teammates with Christopher, it's pretty crazy.

Like I said, I've known him for 17 something years, and for us to be teammates and to think that when we were racing online 16 years ago and having photo finishes that one day we'd be doing it in the Cup Series, it's just a pretty cool story really.

I feel like me and Christopher both push each other just because we do know kind of the upbringing. But of all the people that I could have raced against there to the line, Christopher is the most respectful guy in the garage. I knew he wasn't going to do anything to me to wreck me, where other guys may have done that.

Yeah, Christopher is just an incredible race car driver, and I love racing with Christopher because you always know you're going to get respect, and you can't say that about some guys.

Q. When James was in here, he said that you guys have to step on their throats in order to pull this off. You're a pretty low-key guy. How do you pull that off?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, I think just going to the racetrack and trying to win stages, win races. You can step on their throat, you can be a nice guy, though, outside of the race car, but in the race car I think you have to be a killer.

For us, that's the whole approach, is just going and -- I think just trying to dominate races. Like I was saying earlier, that's the only way you're going to cut into the gap is by winning races.

If you just run second or third and Larson runs second or third with you, like you're not going to gain 64 points in four weeks. Yeah, just have to go win races and just have to be ultra aggressive truthfully and try to do everything we can in our power, and if it's enough, it'll be enough at the end.

Q. You said after Kansas you needed to win five of the next six. Now that you've done two in a row, what is next? What is the realistic ceiling?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, I mean, look, I feel great about all the tracks we're going to. Phoenix is where I've been able to at least win my first Cup race, so I feel confident going there. Even just in the 19 cars, stats-wise, I would say we have been one of the worst cars -- if you just look on paper at the finish -- but we have passed so many cars and went from the back to the front I don't know how many times.

I think we've blown five tires in two races there. So the end result doesn't always show great, but we've been really fast there. Talladega we were able to win last year. Martinsville to me is the big question mark for our group. We've been okay. We've just been a seventh to tenth place car and we're going to have to be better if we're going to go and contend.

Homestead is a place I feel really good about. Just going to have to go perform the next four weeks.

I think Talladega for us, though, in our situation is going to be where the scale is going to get tipped one way or the other. There's just so much volatility in that race that that's where you're going to see the big points gaps, increased or decreased, so hopefully we can go there and do what we did last year.

Q. For a guy who had six wins eight days ago in their career to now have eight, how big of an accomplishment is that?

CHASE BRISCOE: It's a super big accomplishment. I was telling my wife just the other night, I was like, man, it's crazy to think I could get to double digits. That's crazy to me.

Yeah, to go from six to eight, yeah, anytime you can win a Cup race it's a big deal. When you look at the list of guys that have won one, there's some incredible race car drivers and even incredible race car drivers that have never won a Cup race, and to be able to do it eight times now, honestly I can't express how thankful I am for Joe Gibbs honestly taking a chance on me.

When he signed me I had one career Cup win, and there was obviously a ton of question marks about what my potential was.

For him to take a chance on me and to be able to drive this car, it's just a privilege, honestly.

Q. You talked yesterday about how you're expected to win, but are you expected to win back-to-back at JGR?

CHASE BRISCOE: I don't know about expected. Look, they want us to win every week, right. But that is the expectation you go to the track with is to go and win every single week.

I don't think that the expectation changes if you won two in a row or three in a row or whatever. It's what the capability is truthfully when you walk in the door at JGR.

Just got to keep pushing. Like he was asking earlier, just keep putting our foot on their throats. That's all we can really do at this point.

Q. You win today at Charlotte to vault yourself into serious title contention and then you won the Roval years ago to kind of save your career on the NASCAR side. When you look at that, what does Charlotte mean for your career?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, Charlotte means everything to my career. Before all that happened, I came here in 2013 and did the PEAK Stock Car Dream Challenge, and that was literally the reason I'm sitting here today was because that reality TV show put us in stock cars, and that was the first time I'd ever driven on pavement or stock car or manual transmission or anything.

I remember coming here and feeling like I had performed pretty well, and I didn't win the competition, and Ty Norris literally pulled us into his office and said, hey, if you're serious about this, you need to move here.

Literally my whole career started at Charlotte Motor Speedway back in 2013. I was 18 years old, and from that point it took three and a half years to get actually in a stock car race.

But yeah, Charlotte Motor Speedway has had a significance in my career, whether it was the peak stock car thing, winning the Roval and saving my career, today, and even just coming here when I was in that three and a half year period of trying to volunteer and find myself into a ride.

Hopefully they don't take me out of this place now, but I would sneak into the garage and sneak on to pit road. I didn't have Hot Passes or anything and I would just try to network.

It's really cool to be in Victory Lane here because I remember coming and watching races and dreaming of being out on the racetrack. So it's pretty crazy that it's all came full circle.

Q. Chase, how much more tangible or realistic does this championship feel today compared to where you were leaving Kansas?

CHASE BRISCOE: Honestly, I mean, compared to Kansas, it feels a little more realistic. But the gap honestly still feels huge and just feels like a missed opportunity. Going back to, like I was saying, there's four laps I can count on my hand where I've gave up 75 points.

From that standpoint, it feels like a little bit of a missed opportunity. Just the gap still feels huge. But yeah, you're at least still in the mix.

Mathematically you can still get there. I mean, there's some guys that mathematically they literally do not have a chance to win even if they won the next four races.

For us to mathematically say there's still a chance is great. Momentum is a big thing. If we can go next week and cut the gap down to 30 or 40 and then you go to Talladega and things go your way, you could find yourself leading the points. So, yeah, just have to go do our jobs and execute.

Like I keep saying, the points are going to be what they're going to be. At the end of the day we just have to go and try to just win as many stages and win as many races as we can and let the points kind of play out.

Q. I know Denny ended up falling to fifth, but at one point really late in that race it was you, Christopher, and Denny all running top three with Larson in fourth. Does this feel like a JGR fight now versus the No. 5 team for this championship?

CHASE BRISCOE: I don't know if I would say that. I think Penske is still very much in the mix. When you think about Phoenix they've been almost untouchable. You go to Martinsville and Blaney has been absolutely unreal. I feel like Penske is still very much in play, and Blaney has even been leading on the white flag at Homestead too. And they're going to be great at Talladega.

I definitely think it comes down to Hendrick, JGR and Penske which we hear every single week, but I would say it's not just a two-team race at this point.

Q. Chase, I really want to know, you kind of touched on this because you were talking about you're on the cusp of double digits, and now for the first time in your Cup career you've won three races, two back-to-back in your Cup career. You're out here celebrating with your wife and kids. You've got a new sponsor. You must have a ton of confidence. How do you keep that in check to make sure that the confidence doesn't get so overwhelming that you kind of step on your own foot, so to speak?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, I don't know. I think for me, I just take what we do with very much a grain of salt. Do I want to win? Yeah, but if I don't win, I really don't care, in a sense. That probably sounds terrible as a competitor, but I don't really let the results change my mood or my emotion for the good or the worse.

I think just knowing that and knowing that -- I don't know, I just don't let my life be consumed by the racing aspect.

From a confidence standpoint, I feel like even when I'm not winning I'm confident in my abilities, but I don't think winning for me changes my confidence level.

I do think for the guys, the pit crew and things like that, the pit crew has been the best pit crew on pit road by a mile. I think the confidence is definitely carrying them. When we come down pit road, they know that they are not going to be beat.

But yeah, I think for myself at least, I don't really think it changes a whole lot. Yeah, go to Phoenix next week and try to win again, but you could very well run 36th. You just don't know.

I don't know if that answers your question or not, but yeah, that's kind of where I'm at on everything.

Q. But delivering for your sponsor regardless of whether it's Johnny Morris or anybody is great, but it's got to be like icing on the cake to deliver a first win for a sponsor, a new one like with Free Bird.

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, it is really special. Free Bird is a company that's literally -- it started as a dream. The guy woke up in the middle of the night in November of 2024 and to now be here in less than two years and to be a sponsor on a Cup car for three races and to be able to go to Victory Lane, that is a pretty hard thing to do.

I just think about for their company how big of a day this was. Just think about the people that didn't know what Free Bird was and they see the car running around there and winning the race they're going to type it in and see what it is and hopefully buy it and try it.

That's what NASCAR sponsorship is all about, and to be able to deliver them a win is a huge thing.

Yeah, really, really cool to be able to do that. All of our partners, right, even if Johnny and Bass Pro is not on the car or Wix or Zep or Columbia Bank or whoever it may be, they're still very much a part of them.

So to do it for them and have back-to-back weeks where we can win, it's still a huge delivery for them.

Q. James talked about the masterful job you did at the latter part of the race and said, hey, earlier in the year I'm not sure if we could have gotten that all together. One of the things he mentioned was like tonight, a bad restart, car wasn't as good as it needed to be second stage. He said you didn't get flustered. The first race here had maybe a bad restart, tried to make a heroic move, and talked to you about that. Can you give me a sense of how, if you feel this way, how you have grown from earlier in the season to how you were able to do the things that you did tonight to put yourself in position and then hold people off and win this race, whereas maybe it would have been a little more challenging earlier this year?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, I definitely think I've gotten way more experience of just being in control of races or being in contention. As you do that, you just get more comfortable in those situations and have a better understanding of what to do and how to pace yourself.

Even there at the end like with 20 to go, I'm balancing just not running 100 percent every lap, where in the past I would be.

So I think for me, it's been a huge learning curve truthfully coming to JGR and just trying to figure out how to manage races when you're leading because the Cup Series is very different.

Yes, you run dang near 100 percent every lap, but the tires do change a lot. Yeah, I feel like I've definitely gotten better at that, and yeah, today was definitely one of those points where I had a bad restart and just our balance truthfully was kind of off, and I fell back to tenth and just tried to not panic and tried to minimize my time loss and just keep trying to move around the racetrack.

Because ultimately, look, with how good our pit crew is, I knew if I could stay in the top 10 maybe I could get to sixth or seventh on pit road, have another good restart like I've been having typically and then get to third or fourth. That's actually what happened.

Yeah, I definitely think just not panicking but also just understanding the risk versus reward, that's something that I bit myself on at Bristol a couple weeks ago. Yeah, I just tried to tell myself like, you're running 10th, things aren't going your way. Don't crash trying to find something extra. Your car is just off. You will get an opportunity in 10 to 15, 20 laps to work on it, and it ultimately was a huge difference maker for our race.

And going back to what James mentioned, the Coke 600 I did have a bad restart and I started panicking and trying to push and made a move and ultimately wrecked myself.

Yeah, just trying to be better about understanding the big picture and how to manage races, and that's something that I feel like I've just gotten better at as I've led more.

Q. Earlier this year you talked about the identity of you and the 19 and the history of that car. This season has been a good season. You're in the playoffs, as we said, back-to-back wins. How much do you believe that's solidified Chase Briscoe No. 19, the association and that confidence level?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, I definitely think as you start winning races, you start to create an identity in that car, where last year, especially the first half of the year, I felt like I was a substitute teacher driving Martin's car. It wasn't my car to drive; it was his. He'd been in it for so long.

Yeah, it was honestly still Martin's team. Everything that they were kind of doing was based around the success they'd had with Martin in the past, and as we've evolved as a race team, we've just gotten a better understanding.

But yeah, I definitely -- look, there's a lot of fans that probably still think of the 19 as Martin. He just had so much success in it. But I do feel like it's a total 180 of what it was last year in May versus what it is now, because it is very much that.

As you have success in a car your identity kind of starts to grow into that. Hopefully I can be in the 19 car for my entire career, and yeah, just have to keep winning.

Q. I wanted to touch back on the team aspect of this championship fight. JGR has three teams that are contenders, Hendrick has one and Penske has two. Do you think it's going to come down to a numbers game? Do you think that's an important part of this year's championship? Or do you think it's not as important?

CHASE BRISCOE: I think from my standpoint, the numbers don't really matter at all. But from Coach's standpoint as the owner, yeah, the more bullets you can have in the chamber, the better chance you have. I think from Coach's standpoint, yeah, it's great to have three.

But from my standpoint and the opportunity to win a championship, it really doesn't matter if you have two teammates or three teammates or four teammates or whatever. Yeah, I don't know. I think it's more so for Coach though. I definitely think for him, the more cars he can have in contention, the better.

Q. I wanted to go back to something you said about Martin Truex Jr. It's funny, Martin Truex Jr. was the last guy to win this race, albeit different team, different number. What is your relationship like with Martin today? Do you guys talk? What is that transition from driver 19 to the new driver of the 19?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, honestly, I don't really have a relationship with Martin. Even when he raced, like he was one of the few guys in the field I just never talked to. That's kind of ironic because we do have a lot of the same things in common as far as hunting and fishing and stuff. But truthfully, I don't talk to Martin. I don't even have his phone number.

I can't really speak to that. I just don't really know Martin. But I don't know, I'm sure we'd get along though.

Q. One more quick question. There were some conversations raised, Kenny Wallace questioned the Jeff Gluck Poll, which I know you like to chime in on and give your vote on every so often. What are your thoughts on the Jeff Gluck Poll, and should it continue?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, I definitely think it should continue. To me, I think it's always a good bar, because a lot of the time I think it puts a good perspective on what the race actually is, because there's times where I think the race is incredible, and then there's times where the fans don't think that. So you kind of have this better understanding.

Then sometimes the race is really good and just sometimes TV -- everybody voting on that poll for the most part is watching the race on TV, so whatever they're shown is kind of what their interpretation of what the race actually is, is based on their votes.

I've always enjoyed the race poll even before I was doing it and being a part of it every week. I just always felt like it was such a good understanding of where the race fans were and also the time tie in to how I thought the race was and whatnot.

Yeah, I really hope it continues. I really enjoy it. I don't know what negative could come out of it. Yeah, I really enjoy it.

Q. Your pit crew has been pretty hot. I think tonight I had them top of the list, and I think they did a 7.91 on one of the stops. I also had you on rolling time; I think Coke 600 you were ninth or tenth. I think I got you like top 3 tonight. What are you guys doing? Are you participating in any of the pit stop practices? Video reviews? What's going on behind the scenes that's caused this big surge over the last few races?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, I think a lot of it is our group is just clicking. They have so much confidence and they know where each guy is going to be every step. Truthfully I don't go to the practices. I work out with the guys on Wednesdays and have that camaraderie, but outside of that, obviously the car placement is a big part of that and that's something that I didn't do a very good job of for honestly a lot of my career until the last five or six months and not understanding the importance of all that.

But yeah, I just think those guys are just clicking on all cylinders. They are so confident right now. Knock on wood, I said it last week, I don't think they've had like a blowup stop in like 15 weeks now. They are just on all eight cylinders, just ripping.

It's just a group of guys that have been together for a while now and they just have this chemistry. Sometimes that's all you need, right?

You look at football teams or basketball teams, you get that team chemistry and that camaraderie, it can go a long way. I feel like that's what our group has.

Q. Stuff seems to change pretty rapidly. I've heard even this week that NASCAR changed how the shocks are inspected and assembled. So a lot of stuff, modeling changes. Are you a big sim user, whether that's the full driver in the loop sim, TRD, or maybe some static sims at the shop? What's your approach during the week in like running in one of those?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, I definitely am a huge proponent of the sim. It's been very eye-opening when I came to Toyota, just how amazing their group is.

I think about the one that I would say really showed up was when we went to Mexico City. I think my fastest lap of the entire weekend was lap 2, and I had never seen the place in real life. That's just a testament to how good the simulator is. It is a huge piece of, I think, why teams are able to perform at a high level.

There's some drivers that don't like it, don't put the work into it, but I definitely think the work that you're willing to put in, you get it back.

There is that rare occurrence where it steers you the wrong direction, but like I said, the more work you put in, the more time you put in, the more you get out.

I would say just our group or our manufacturer as a whole does an amazing job with the sim group. It's not only sim; just Toyota gives us every tool that we would ever need to go win races and that's why we're successful. It was very eye-opening when I came here just all the resources that they have.

Q. What made your car go so fast?

CHASE BRISCOE: The Toyota sim. Our team did a really good job. Our crew did a really good job with the setup, and I just listened to your advice. You always tell me -- tell everybody what you always tell me for the race. How do you tell me to drive it?

Q. Just press the pedal all the way down.

CHASE BRISCOE: That's all you've got to do. You've just got to press the pedal all the way down down the straightaway, hit the brake in the corner, and if you do that, that's all you've got to do to be successful.

Yeah, really cool that he was able to ride with me. That was a great question.